Mecanism to upgrade system capability without affecting service

摘要

A method of upgrading system capability of a communications network device comprises:initiating a transfer of at least one first set of system capability instructions from a first memory to a target processor while the communications network device is operating;determining if a header line of a first frame transferred from the first memory is valid;if it is valid, completing the transfer;determining if the transfer was completed within a specified time frame; andif not, transferring at least one second set of system capability instructionsfrom a second memory to the target processor;if the header line of the first frame is not valid:ceasing the transfer of the at least one first set of instructions;transferring the at least one second set of instructions from the second memory;determining if the transfer of the at least one second set of instructions was completed within the specified time frame; andif not, halting operation of the host card until a known good version of system capability instructions is loaded into the target processor.